The first time I read about the experiment with the jams, I met a friend that evening outside Starbucks (I don’t drink coffee so I don’t often go to Starbucks but it was a meeting place both of us knew). While waiting for her, I counted the coffee options on offer and came up with about 35 not counting the additional options of having whatever you had with soy milk or an extra shot of espresso or whatever. Either we have to believe that:
a) the normal interpretation of the jam experiment is right and Starbucks is sacrificing profits in order to fulfill a higher motive of supplying the world with a lot of coffee choices
b) the normal interpretation of the jam experiment doesn’t tell the whole of the story.

If you look at the Starbucks menu, those 35 odd choices are broken down into about 6 major level decisions (espresso, cappucino, etc) with 6 sub-options within each. People are not choosing from 35 different options, they are making two choices from two different sets of six options.

I would be interested in the results of a jam experiment where they tried presenting a large number of jam options but broken down into groups like Starbucks does.

The first time I read about the experiment with the jams, I met a friend that evening outside Starbucks (I don’t drink coffee so I don’t often go to Starbucks but it was a meeting place both of us knew). While waiting for her, I counted the coffee options on offer and came up with about 35 not counting the additional options of having whatever you had with soy milk or an extra shot of espresso or whatever. Either we have to believe that:
a) the normal interpretation of the jam experiment is right and Starbucks is sacrificing profits in order to fulfill a higher motive of supplying the world with a lot of coffee choices
b) the normal interpretation of the jam experiment doesn’t tell the whole of the story.

If you look at the Starbucks menu, those 35 odd choices are broken down into about 6 major level decisions (espresso, cappucino, etc) with 6 sub-options within each. People are not choosing from 35 different options, they are making two choices from two different sets of six options.

I would be interested in the results of a jam experiment where they tried presenting a large number of jam options but broken down into groups like Starbucks does.